Entertainment

Windows Live Messenger's Dual-Ended Approach to APIs

Microsoft has announced its plans for a developer API for its Windows Live Messenger program yesterday at Georgia Institute of Technology. The API will allow developers to create their own versions of Windows Live Messenger. It will also enable developers to make applications that can be integrated into Windows Live messenger.

Some of the examples that Microsoft mentioned during the announcement include a Vista Sidebar gadget that supports chat and media-sharing capabilities between friends. Images, text and files can be dragged and dropped into this conversation sidebar in order to share multimedia. Another feature mentioned was a location-based friend marker.

Other ways in which this could be used could be for remote admin access to certain applications or servers, for alert purposes. These alerts cold even be forwarded to a mobile device. A Tech Preview of the new API offerings will be shown at MIX 08 next March, and a Beta 1 version is scheduled for release along with Windows Live messenger 9, which isn't pegged for release until late 2008 or early 2009.

As the API looks to offer tools for custom versions of Windows Live Messenger along with application access for existing Windows Live Messengers, this could be a dual-ended approach that would support a very wide array of developers for the creation of compatible gadgets and applications to work with the Messenger system. This would be a bit different from Meebo's intended approach, which looks to be more controlled on Meebo's end.

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